The Determinants of Child Labour: The Role of Primary Product Specialization

Abstract. The paper tests predictions of a traditional intra‐household bargaining model which, under reasonable assumptions, shows that lack of bargaining power in the value chain significantly reduces the capacity for obtaining benefits from increased product demand arising from trade liberalization and therefore is positively associated with child labour. Cross‐sectional and panel negative binomial estimates in a sample of emerging countries support this hypothesis. They show that proxies of domestic workers’ bargaining power in the international division of labour (such as the share of primary product exports) are significantly related to child labour, net of the effect of traditional controls such as parental income, quality of education, international aid, and trade liberalization. The positive impact of the share of primary product exports on child labour outlines a potential paradox. The paradox suggests that trade liberalization does not always have straightforward positive effects on social indicators and that its short‐run effects on income distribution and distribution of skills and market power across countries need to be carefully evaluated.     

Internationalization,Innovation and Institutions: The 3 I's Underpinning the Competitiveness of Emerging Market Firms

The past decade has seen an increase in the extent of research focused on and around emerging market firms (EMFs) and their rising levels of competitiveness in both their home markets and more importantly in the global market place. At the same time, the practitioner-oriented literature has been documenting a growing number of corporate success stories that originate in emerging market economies. We posit that the growing prominence of EMFs is a result of three interrelated phenomena: the fast-paced internationalization of EMFs into both developing and developed market economies; the rapidly increasing extent to which business enterprises in emerging economies are focusing on knowledge-intensive processes and innovation; and the continuous evolution of institutions in these markets, particularly in terms of economic liberalization.     

Country-of-origin determinants of foreign direct investment in an emerging market: the case of Mexico

Foreign direct investment (FDI) research has generally focused on inward FDI to large, developed nations. Very limited research has examined the country-of-origin factors that are related to FDI into the developing nations (emerging markets) that are becoming increasingly important in the global economy. In this paper, we provide the first empirical test of a multidimensional, country-of-origin model of factors related to FDI in an emerging market — Mexico. Economic, socio-political, and geographic factors are hypothesized to be important country-of-origin determinants of FDI into Mexico. The results indicate that some factors, such as the level of bilateral trade, home-country GDP, political risk, geographic distance, and exchange rates, are related to FDI into Mexico. At the same time, relationships between FDI and country-of-origin factors, such as market size (GDP) and cultural distance, that have previously held in research on FDI to large, developed nations do not hold in the same way in the emerging market context. Separate consideration of efficiency-seeking (maquila) FDI indicates that bilateral trade, wage rate, GDP, and the exchange rate contribute significantly to the explanation of inward FDI in Mexico.     

THE WELFARE GAINS OF FINANCIAL LIBERALIZATION: CAPITAL ACCUMULATION AND HETEROGENEITY

Research has shown that, absent individual heterogeneity and under complete markets, the welfare impact of financial openness is quantitatively limited. Not only are inequalities in wealth and labor productivity a feature of most societies, but also financial markets suffer from many well‐known frictions. This paper demonstrates that, when households face borrowing constraints and uninsurable idiosyncratic shocks to income, the welfare implications of financial liberalization are considerable. For instance, the average increase in welfare of a typical emerging market economy that switches from a closed capital market to perfect capital mobility is equivalent to a permanent increase in average consumption of roughly 5.4%. This is about 3.9 times more than the welfare gains of the same policy under a complete markets environment without any individual heterogeneity. We show that individual heterogeneity accounts for two thirds of this additional increase in the average welfare gain; market incompleteness accounts for the remaining third. In our calibration, the median household in capital‐scarce countries is in favor of international financial integration. However, if the pivotal voter is wealthy enough then such reform might not be implemented, since richer households have a vested interest in capital market closedness.     

Determinants of voluntary executive stock option disclosure in Brazil

This study investigates whether the governance attributes of Brazilian companies are associated with voluntary executive stock option (ESO) disclosure. Results show that Brazilian companies voluntarily disclose very little about their ESO plans, and that board size, presence of a compensation committee, and auditing by a Big 4 firm are significantly related to the degree of voluntary ESO disclosure. We also show that family-controlled companies in Brazil are associated with low voluntary ESO disclosure. Results are robust to a number of specification tests, dependent and explanatory variable measurements, and sample composition. This study has professional and regulatory implications for Brazil and other emerging capital markets. The results underscore the need for stricter rules for executive compensation reporting in Brazil, and they invite policy makers and regulators in emerging markets to consider the effects of company-level governance factors on disclosure incentives.     

基于宏观经济视角的我国上市公司现金持有量研究

已有研究表明,公司现金持有量受到公司内部因素的影响并会进行动态调整。然而,现金持有量受宏观经济环境的影响如何以及如何根据宏观经济的变化进行动态调整,少有文献探讨。本文在理论分析的基础上,构建了宏观经济环境对现金持有量影响的静态模型和动态模型,以2001-2011年沪深两市843家上市公司的平衡面板数据为样本,就宏观经济环境对不同控股性质上市公司现金持有行为的影响进行了实证研究。研究结果表明,上市公司现金持有量与经济周期和财政政策显著负相关,而与货币政策显著正相关;现金持有量调整速度与经济周期变化和货币政策变化正相关,而与财政政策变化显著负相关。研究结果还显示,非国有控股公司的现金持有量对宏观经济更敏感,调整速度明显快于国有控股公司。本文为现金持有量的研究提供了更全面的视角。     

Liberalization of the Taiwan wheat milling industry

Taiwan, in just the past two years, lifted quoto restrictions on wheat imports and lowered tariff barriers. These changes along with the antitrust movement and severe overcapacity will be the catalysts for tremendous structural changes in the way wheat millers compete for domestic market share and contracts for flour. The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of liberalization on the Taiwan milling industry.     

来自新兴市场的公司上市对目的地市场的影响——以中国香港市场为例

选取1993-2017年数据,以H股在香港证券市场上市为研究对象,运用DCC-MVGARCH模型、线性回归模型和事件研究法等多种组合方法,考察来自新兴市场的公司上市对目的地市场发展和目的地既有上市公司影响。结果表明：第一,H股在港上市扩大了香港市场的市场规模和交易活动,吸引了更多的国际资本流入;第二,H股在港上市提升了H股与香港市场既有股票的收益相关性,以及香港市场与大陆市场及全球市场的联动性;第三,H股在港上市对既有股票的估值影响是积极的。总之,来源于新兴市场的公司上市对目的地市场和既有上市公司的综合影响是积极的,溢出效应大于"质量传染"效应和分流效应,促进了目的地市场质量提升和市场发展。本文结论有助于丰富跨境上市对目的地市场影响的研究,对于基于"一带一路"新兴市场国家开放资本市场战略构建国际金融中心的我国具有重要的启示意义。     

Liberalization’s impact on the Indian seed industry: competition,research, and impact on farmers

This article attempts to measure the impact of India’s limited liberalization on the seed industry and on farmers. Using a unique data set on the structure, research, and sales of private seed firms at two points in time, 1987 and 1995, we provide evidence that liberalization increased the competitiveness of the seed industry, and increased the amount of research by Indian and foreign seed firms. Then, using government district level data and data collected from these firms, we show that private hybrids increased farmers’ yields. This suggests that Indian farmers are the true beneficiaries of liberalization and that policies that encourage more competition and more research will provide future benefits to farmers.     

Prices,Markups, and Trade Reform

This paper examines how prices, markups, and marginal costs respond to trade liberalization. We develop a framework to estimate markups from production data with multi‐product firms. This approach does not require assumptions on the market structure or demand curves faced by firms, nor assumptions on how firms allocate their inputs across products. We exploit quantity and price information to disentangle markups from quantity‐based productivity, and then compute marginal costs by dividing observed prices by the estimated markups. We use India's trade liberalization episode to examine how firms adjust these performance measures. Not surprisingly, we find that trade liberalization lowers factory‐gate prices and that output tariff declines have the expected pro‐competitive effects. However, the price declines are small relative to the declines in marginal costs, which fall predominantly because of the input tariff liberalization. The reason for this incomplete cost pass‐through to prices is that firms offset their reductions in marginal costs by raising markups. Our results demonstrate substantial heterogeneity and variability in markups across firms and time and suggest that producers benefited relative to consumers, at least immediately after the reforms.     

Governance Structure,Innovation and Internationalization: Evidence From India

We examine the impact of firm-level governance structure on the innovation and internationalization strategies of emerging market firms. We propose that in the case of emerging market firms, governance is a response to the prevailing institutional environment and affects the innovation and internationalization strategies of firms. Based on a longitudinal sample of 16,337 firm-year observations of Indian listed firms over a year time period from 2002 to 2009, we find a positive effect of family ownership and group affiliation on R&D intensity and new foreign investments. Institutional ownership also positively affects new foreign investments, but has no effect on R&D intensity. Further, we find that R&D intensity interacts with family ownership, institutional ownership and group affiliation in affecting new foreign investments.     

Competitive Capabilities among Manufacturing Plants in Developing,Emerging, and Industrialized Countries: A Comparative Analysis

Competitive capabilities have been defined as a plant's actual performance relative to its competitors, with the most commonly investigated capabilities being quality, delivery, flexibility, and cost. However, most research in this realm has investigated capabilities within developed countries, and neglected the context of developing and emerging nations, which are increasingly becoming viable economic entities in global supply chains in their own right. The present study fills this gap and carries out a comparative analysis of competitive capabilities among plants in developing, emerging, and industrialized countries. Basing our arguments on the resource‐based view of the firm, we suggest that the influence of competitive capabilities on each other varies among plants in differentially industrialized regions. Specifically, we suggest that, on average, competitive capabilities tend to influence each other to a greater degree in plants in emerging and developing countries compared to industrialized countries. Along similar lines, we suggest that the influence of the four competitive capabilities on performance improvement is manifested more strongly among plants in emerging and developing countries than among plants in industrialized nations. We investigate these contentions with data from 1,211 plants in 21 countries. The results are particularly important for decision makers as they decide on the increasingly global location of their manufacturing operations or the configuration of their global supply chains.     

中国电力市场长期产业组织架构与电价趋势研究

为了分析售电侧电力市场化改革背景下中国电力市场长期产业组织架构形态和均衡电价变动趋势,本文根据售电公司在电力批发市场和零售市场的双边讨价还价博弈行为,构建了长期模式下独立售电公司、寄生公司和电力批发商三者之间的两阶段Stackelberg博弈模型,结合博弈的均衡状态,比较分析了长期和短期改革效果,并进一步讨论了均衡电价的影响因素和变动情况。结果表明：（1）长期电力市场的均衡批发电价低于完全垄断时期的均衡批发电价,售电侧放开对于降电价效果明显。（2）在改革效果方面,相较于短期改革而言,竞争性的长期改革形态更加有效,长期均衡电价和均衡批发电价随贴现率的波动小于短期,市场更加稳定。（3）在政策实施层面,随着改革推进和竞争程度增加,调整对象从电力批发商逐步过渡到售电公司,有助于保障售电市场竞争的公平和效率。     

Cross-border acquisition performance of emerging market multinational enterprises: The moderating role of state-ownership and acquisition experience

This paper draws on the resource-based view and organizational learning theory to analyse the moderating role played by state ownership and acquisition experience in the performance of emerging market multinational enterprises (EMNEs). We contribute to the evolving literature on state-owned EMNEs by identifying various post cross-border acquisition (CBA) strategies, which have an impact on the performance of such firms that differs for the one they have on privately owned EMNEs. We test our hypotheses by performing a panel regression analysis on a large firm-level dataset spanning 43 emerging markets over the 2006–2015 period. Overall, our findings point at an inverted U-shape relationship between diversification through CBAs and firm performance. More specifically, this concave relationship is greater when the diversification occurs in developed countries, as opposed to emerging ones. Furthermore, there is evidence that state-ownership and EMNE acquisition experience moderate these relationships both in domestic and foreign markets, albeit with different intensities.     

Trade and Factor Market Reforms in China

The benefits of the multi‐faceted liberalization of the Chinese economy can be seen in various indicators of economic development. The rate of growth of the economy, the flow of foreign investment in China, and rising quality of life are some of the indicators of gains from the liberalization process. Most of the research has focused on the role of trade reforms on the Chinese economy. There is, however, one unfinished agenda that has not been addressed adequately by policy makers as well as academia, i.e. labor‐sector reforms. In this paper, we analyze the effect of labor market liberalization in China using a Computable General Equilibrium (CGE) model. Most CGE models on China using a neoclassical approach assume that there is a single wage rate for the economy. This is a simplifying assumption and has strong implications. Studies show that inter‐industry wage differentials persist even after accounting for obvious explanations such as differences in human capital or job hazard. Inter‐industry structural rigidities in developing countries lead to wage differentials. In China, labor mobility from the rural to the urban sector is restricted. Furthermore, China is on its way to joining the WTO agreement. As a signatory to the WTO agreement, China would be required to reform its trade sector by eliminating tariffs. In this paper, we explicitly model wage differentials in the case of the Chinese economy. Various counterfactual experiments have been conducted to introduce efficiency by the removal of factor market differentials in China in the presence and absence of tariff and non‐tariff barriers. Our results indicate that factor market reforms are essential to the realization of full gains from accession to the WTO agreement.     

天使还是魔鬼?——分析师媒体荐股的市场效应

利用证券分析师在《中国证券报》、《上海证券报》、《证券时报》上发布的荐股信息,研究分析师媒体荐股的市场反应、效率及其对财富流动的影响.结果表明:1)媒体荐股信息对市场,特别是对个人投资者的行为产生了强烈影响;2)媒体荐股信息公布后,被推荐股票存在显著为负的超额收益,这一现象在下跌行情时表现尤为突出;3)媒体荐股信息影响了市场财富的流动,个人投资者依赖于荐股信息的买入行为给他们带来了显著损失.研究结果一方面说明媒体发布的荐股信息质量低下;另一方面也证实媒体荐股行为中存在内幕交易和利益输送的现象,直接导致个人投资者的财富流向机构投资者.     

中国大豆产业国际竞争力分析

本文介绍了中国大豆进出口现状以及通过国际竞争力评价指标体系说明中国大豆出口的竞争优势与劣势,综合中国大豆产业所存在的问题和所具有的优势,提出在WTO的规则下,中国应采取的对策.     

Efficiency of telecommunications companies in European countries

The telecommunications sector has undergone the most drastic changes in terms of market liberalization and has dominated the privatisation process in most countries in terms of the size of its assets and because this industry is the flagship of public services. The purpose of this study is to conduct a comparative analysis of the efficiency of eleven European privatised Public Telecommunications Operators PTOs from 1997 to 2005 and to determine whether privatisation, liberalisation and investment in infrastructure have increased their efficiency or not. We make use of the DEA methodology to analyse the efficiency of PTOs, as this model is especially appropriate to analyse organisations whose production process does not result in the obtaining of a product but in the delivery of a public service. In spite of the technological progress, our results do not show that the comparative performance of PTOs has grown significantly during the period analysed. Therefore, we must take into account other factors such as privatisation, state regulation and organisational changes to determine their performance. From our study, we can conclude that not all companies have been able to adapt equally to the competitive market. The non-efficient companies have traditionally operated in a protectionist market and they continue in a monopolistic situation in spite of market liberalization.     

When Gray is Good: Gray Markets and Market‐Creating Investments

Gray markets arise when an intermediary buys a product in a lower‐priced, often emerging market and resells it to compete with the product's original manufacturer in a higher priced, more developed market. Evidence suggests that gray markets make the original manufacturer worse off globally by eroding profit margins in developed markets. Thus, it is interesting that many firms do not implement control systems to curb gray market activity. Our analysis suggests that one possible explanation lies at the intersection of two economic phenomena: firms investing to build emerging market demand, and investments conferring positive externalities (spillovers) on a rival's demand. We find that gray markets amplify the incentives to invest in emerging markets, because investments increase both emerging market consumption and the gray market's cost base. Moreover, when market‐creating investments confer positive spillovers, each firm builds its own market more efficiently. Thus, firms can be better off with gray markets when investments confer spillovers, provided the spillover effect is sufficiently large. These results provide a perspective on why firms might not implement control systems to prevent gray market distribution in sectors where investment spillovers are common (e.g., the technology sector) and, more broadly, why gray markets persist in the economy.     

Risk Management and the Business Environment in South Africa

Risk management involves tracking market and non-market long-range risks, understanding their adverse impact on the business environment, and managerial responses to reduce risk exposure. As an emerging market, South Africa poses a challenging array of long-term political, economic, financial and operational risks to investors. Risks such as concerns about increased costs, lack of transparency, limited capacity to enforce the rule of law, government intervention, a volatile currency, regional contagion and the HIV/Aids pandemic heighten uncertainty about the business environment. Managerial responses to anticipate and mitigate risks include matching mode of entry with risk tolerance, superior intelligence and lobbying, maintaining low tolerance for corruption, selecting appropriate financial instruments and balancing shareholder and stakeholder interests.The risk management framework presented, consisting of three elements: type of risk, impact of risks and managerial response to counter adverse risk impacts, may be refined and expanded for potential application to other emerging markets.